Bed-Ridden - A Post Twilight Princess One-Shot
by Triforchestra
Summary: After triumphing over Ganondorf in the finale of Twilight Princess, Link finds himself back in the cozy village life of Ordon. However, Link becomes seriously ill to the point of being bed-ridden, requiring that Ilia take care of him. Unbeknownst to the other villagers, Link thinks the cause of his illness may be a strange wound that has yet to heal since his fight with Ganon.


_**Synopsis**_

 _After triumphing over Ganondorf in the finale of Twilight Princess, Link finds himself back in the cozy village life of Ordon. However, Link becomes seriously ill to the point of being bed-ridden, requiring that Ilia take care of him. Unbeknownst to the other villagers, Link thinks the cause of his illness may be a strange, dark wound that has yet to heal since his fight with Ganon._

* * *

Link grunted as he sat up from his bed, harnessing all of what little energy he had left to heave his body upwards. Light-headedness crept over him, and his weary eyes rolled in a sickly lull. Grimacing, he slowly lugged his heavy, tired legs over the side of the bed. He grabbed his head in pain and exhaustion. That small movement felt as though it took the energy of wrestling a Goron. A shiver went through his body from fatigue.

It had been over a week since Link had passed out after working on the ranch, and his health had since deteriorated at an alarming rate. Within a few days his energy had rapidly depleted, leaving him for the most part bed-ridden. Ilia had begun taking care of him, bringing him purified water and cooking him meals once he had no energy to do it himself, as well as keeping him company and providing him distractions. Despite his illness, Link was incredibly restless – it was a strange feeling for him to be cooped up in his house after he was so accustomed to constant physical exertion on his journey across Hyrule.

Huffing with exhaustion, Link lifted up his shirt and looked at his right side. He frowned at the shadowy blotch surrounding the old semi-sealed gash in his side. The veins around the area were sickly purple in color. The black discoloration looked as if it had spread, now reaching about an inch in radius around the gash. Link grimaced again, grinding his teeth together. The entire area stung and burned like hot iron on his skin. As his condition worsened, Link became more certain that the blackened wound was the cause of his sickness. He had kept it hidden from Ilia and all the villagers of Ordon, not wanting to cause them any concern.

"I'm supposed to protect them," he thought, letting out a sigh. "I can't have them worrying about my health." But as the dark wound spread, he knew he couldn't keep it quiet for much longer. He had debated talking to Rusl about the wound. Maybe Rusl would know of a specialized doctor in Hyrule Castle Town? Link shook his head in defeat. There was no way he would be able to make it all the way over to Rusl's house on the other side of town. He couldn't even climb the short ladder up to his bed on the second floor.

A few days after the beginning of his sickly confinement at home, Ilia had noticed that Link was having trouble climbing the ladder down from his bed. Worried for his safety, she brought all of his blankets and pillows down to the long table on the main floor where he normally kept his equipment for Epona. It was embarrassing to submit to that, but Link was too weak to protest. How disheartening that the Hero Chosen by the Gods was too ailing to be able to move across his own home. Or even leave his home for that matter. The ladder that led down from his treehouse was over twice as long as the ladder up to his bed.

Link began lifting the thin white shirt over his head, resolving that he would try once again to clean the wound. As he was about to stand up, he was startled by a voice from the front door.

"Link?" Ilia called. "I'm coming in!" Link quickly put down his shirt, covering the black mark, and sat up straight in a feeble attempt to appear healthier than he actually was.

"I brought you some more water," Ilia said as she stepped inside and lugged a water jug over to the table by Link's open fireplace stove.

"How're you feeling?" she asked.

"Better," Link replied, forcing a weak smile. Ilia turned to look at him and frowned.

"Don't lie to me, you're sick as a dog," she snapped. Link's eyebrows lowered in guilt as he turned his head, averting Ilia's stern glare. The words "sick as a dog" grabbed his attention, and he thought about how it had been a long while since he was last in wolf form. Since his final fight with the beast, Ganon, in fact. He sighed internally, thinking of how quickly things had changed since then. He then wondered whether or not his transformations had anything to do with this illness.

Ilia walked over to Link and sat next to him on the makeshift bed. She put her hand on his forehead gently as Link turned to look at her.

"You're burning up," Ilia said, her eyebrows furrowed with concern. She looked at his eyes, which were normally a brilliant blue color but recently had been dull and glassy with illness. She then lowered her head and gently stroked his arm, feeling goosebumps along his pale skin, which normally was lightly tanned from working under the sun.

"You've been getting worse, Link," Ilia sighed as she continued to stroke his arm.

"I'll be better soon," he replied, sending her a small smile as reassurance. Though she had reason to be concerned, Link hated seeing Ilia so worried, especially over him. He never wanted to be the cause of her distress.

"I hope so," Ilia replied. "Just make sure you're resting up. Don't do anything stupid like you always do." Her face lightened up as she teased him. Link smiled back at her sweetly.

"Here, let me get you some water," Ilia said as she stood up and walked to the kitchen table.

"Thanks Ilia."

"No problem." She grabbed a cup from the cabinet and poured water from the jug she brought.

"Fado's sure been missing your help on the ranch. My father said he's been averaging 4 loose goats a day," Ilia chuckled, making conversation in an attempt to change the subject. She wanted to help Link feel better, and continuing to talk about his worsening condition wasn't doing any good. She feigned a light-hearted demeanor and smiled in spite of how dreadfully worried she was for him.

"While you were off on your journey around Hyrule, my father said it seemed like every single goat escaped at some point," she laughed as she brought Link the cup of water. He chuckled slightly and smiled, but said nothing else. He took a couple sips of the water before handing it back to Ilia, who then placed it on the table next to his bed.

"Have the kids come to visit you at all?" Ilia asked.

"Yeah, all four of them have stopped by a lot," Link replied, comforted by the thought of the children who looked up to him.

"They usually sit right there while I tell them a story." Link made a small motion to the red carpet in front of his makeshift bed. His movements were slight, for every move he made took great exertion from his fatigued body. Even lifting his arm sent waves of aching soreness through his body.

"They always like to hear about how I escorted you and Telma to Kakariko." Link looked up at Ilia out of the corner of his eyes and smiled sheepishly.

He remembered how bittersweet it was to find her in Telma's bar – how relieved he was to see her alive and well, yet how painful it was when he looked into her eyes for the first time in weeks and saw nothing but a lost blankness in her. Even though he had found her, she was still lost and he didn't know at the time whether she would ever be found. The possibility of her being lost forever was more agonizing to him than any sword slash he had been dealt during his journey.

Ilia placed her hand on his shoulder gently. "I like hearing that story too," she added, tilting her head to the side tenderly. Her expression and body movements conveyed an affectionate appreciation to Link, as if she was non-verbally saying, "Thanks again for saving me." The two looked at each other fondly for a moment.

Ilia's glance turned downward at Link's torso. "How long have you been wearing that shirt?" Ilia asked. Link, somewhat taken by surprise, shrugged slightly. She pinched at the material as she examined it.

"You've been wearing that shirt for a week now, haven't you?" she scolded, half-serious and half-playful. "Come on Link, you have to take care of yourself." Link's eyebrows drooped slightly in guilt as he looked at her. Ilia sent him a single-sided smile and shook her head slightly.

"Here, I'll wash it for you," she offered as she grabbed the bottom of his shirt to lift it up over his head. Panic immediately struck Link. He leaned back in reluctance and his weary body fumbled to stop her.

"No, no, it's fine, you don't have to…" he demurred, mustering all of his energy to resist her movements.

"Don't be silly, I don't mind," she assured, proceeding to lift off his shirt. With Link's current condition, Ilia was stronger than him, and his body eventually caved out of exhaustion. He could only hope by some miracle she wouldn't notice the conspicuous black mark.

As Ilia pulled off his shirt, she gasped.

"Link!"

She quickly balled up the shirt and tossed it to the side of the bed. Her eyes drew wide as she gaped at the ghastly wound.

"What happened to you?!" Link drew back and lowered his head guiltily.

"Is this why you've been sick?!" Ilia snapped as she abruptly leaned towards him in an accusatory manner. Link leaned away from her in response, his eyes wide from her jarring reaction. He should have expected it, knowing how she reacted after discovering Epona's leg wound right before Link was about to depart for Hyrule Castle all those months ago.

"Why didn't you say anything?! We could have gotten you help!" she berated. She frowned and shook her head in frustrated disapproval. Link remained silent. Ilia turned her attention back to the black wound, lightly stroking the areas around it.

"Link, somebody needs to look at this! Lay back down, okay? I'm going to get Rusl and see if he knows what we can do," Ilia said, flustered as she gently pressed against Link's shoulders, leaning him back against the pillows. She hurriedly rushed out the door.

Link let out a long sigh and placed his hand on his forehead. She was right, he should have said something earlier. Throughout his entire journey across Hyrule – and even for most of his life beforehand – he was the one who offered help, he was the one who had to be strong and support the people around him. He was never the one who caused any concern, rather he was the one who would immediately offer aid for any concern.

He WAS the Hero Chosen by the Gods, after all. Such a powerful, courageous man shouldn't need any help, right? Link pondered that notion deeply. Was it pride that prevented him from asking for help? Maybe, or maybe it was just his charitable nature that made him reluctant to worry the people he cared about. He had to admit, though, that being helplessly weak and confined to his bed after defeating Ganondorf and saving Hyrule felt like quite the indignity...

With exhaustion taking hold of him, Link leaned further back into his pillow and drifted off to sleep, letting his worries momentarily slip away.

* * *

 _Hope you enjoyed!_

 _This is a chapter from an old Twilight Princess fanfiction that I was working on a couple years ago. I don't intend on coming back to it anytime soon, unfortunately, but regardless, I hope this one-shot was fun to read!_


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